NEW DELHI, Oct 11, (Agencies): Indian police on Thursday said they had arrested three Islamist militants suspected of planning bomb attacks in New Delhi during the upcoming Hindu festival season.
The men were members of the home-grown Indian Mujahideen outfit and were behind a series of blasts in August in the western city of Pune that left one person injured, New Delhi police commissioner Neeraj Kumar said.

“With the three arrests we have prevented a major strike in Delhi,” Kumar told reporters.

He said the arrests followed the interrogation of Syed Zabiuddin, who was arrested in June in connection with the 2008 Mumbai attacks by Pakistan-based gunmen which left 166 people dead.

Police believes Zabiuddin belonged to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba guerrilla force.
“These three are Indian Mujahideen operatives and linked to a Lashkar figure so it proves that the two groups have close links at some level,” Kumar said, adding the suspects had been picked up after travelling to the capital.

The Indian Mujahideen claimed responsibility for blasts in July 2008 in Ahmedabad city when 45 died and in Delhi two months later when 20 people were killed.

The three suspects were arrested in New Delhi over the past two weeks, Kumar told reporters. He said they were responsible for several small explosions in the western city of Pune in August in which one person was injured. A Pune cafe popular with foreigners was the target of a 2010 bombing that killed 17 people.

Police recovered explosives, detonators, batteries and nails used in bombs from the suspects, Kumar said.

Police didn’t give any details of the planned attacks. Large numbers of people gather for religious ceremonies and for shopping during the festival season.

Kumar said the questioning of Syed Zabiuddin Ansari, an Indian citizen who was considered to be a key player in attacks in Mumbai in 2008, helped lead to the three suspects.

Ansari was arrested at New Delhi’s airport in June after Saudi Arabia agreed to hand him over to Indian officials and put him on a flight home.

Investigators said Ansari was linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba. He is alleged to have been among those giving orders to the Mumbai attackers or directing them on their cellphones from a control room in Karachi, Pakistan, during the Nov. 26-28, 2008, attacks that killed 166 people.

Ten Pakistani gunmen rampaged through Mumbai for three days attacking two luxury hotels, a Jewish center and a packed train station.